Fallbrook housing project nears compromise

FALLBROOK -- After years of promoting a plan for developing 85
acres off Old Highway 395 near Highway 76, a developer has finally
won tentative support from the Fallbrook Planning Group.

Beazer Homes, which has been to more than two dozen Planning
Group meetings in Fallbrook over the last several years, had been
repeatedly rebuffed in its attempts to gain approval for its
development known as Pala Mesa Highlands.

On Monday, when Beazer representatives presented an alternative
to the 130 single-family homes they had originally proposed, the
planning group approved it, with some key conditions. The group is
an advisory panel that makes recommendations to the county Board of
Supervisors on land use and traffic issues in the unincorporated
community of Fallbrook.

The plan approved Monday would allow Beazer to build 130
attached homes, ranging in size from 1,677 to 2,034 square feet.
Planners said the project, to be composed of duplexes, is more
consistent with the look of neighborhoods nearby.

Still, the panel put eight conditions on the project that Beazer
Homes is now reviewing, said the company's spokesperson, Linda
Mitrovich.

"Beazer has worked really hard to address issues raised by the
planning group and the community," Mitrovich said, adding that
Monday's approval was a welcome advance toward compromise.

For years, critics of the Pala Mesa Highlands plan had one
complaint that rose above all others: The project would not look
like the neighborhoods to the north and south, made up of mostly
small and attached homes.

"When the project came before us in the initial proposal, it was
a subdivision," planning group member Jack Wood said during an
interview Wednesday. "That's what Beazer builds. We recommended
denial at that point, because it was not consistent with the
character of the surrounding community."

To the south of the 85-acre site is a neighborhood known as Pala
Mesa Village, which consists of small, one-story homes with ample
landscaping. To the north is a cluster of condominiums.

Residents of both communities voiced sharp opposition to the
subdivision proposal, in large part because it would have included
a large number of two-story homes. They also cited concerns about
increasing traffic and noise, and about the visual differences
between the potential subdivision and their neighborhoods.

When the idea of duplexes came before the planning group on
Monday, members of the group who, in the past, were opposed to the
project offered support for the newest incarnation of a
neighborhood that has been years in the making.

Duplexes, they felt, would look more like the communities around
the Beazer property.

"That's a big thing -- community character is important to us,"
said planning group member Eileen Delaney.

Highlands

The land owned by Beazer Homes overlooks Interstate 15 and the
valleys and mountains beyond. On a clear morning last week, the top
of Palomar Mountain peeked over closer hills, as dry brush, which
will eventually be replaced by houses, rustled in the breeze.